Voidfall Review: 4X Marks the Spot - with Jeff 

Thank you so much. I do also have a separate channel, but you'll never guess what that is... 😇

Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it. :) - Jeff

You'll never find me... I am existential... 😂

I had this idea early on - it was a LOT of work to film!! Thanks! - Jeff

Thank you very much!

Thanks for the kind words! I enjoyed making this one. - Jeff

The production quality on this one is at another level over your past ones so great job!

@@Frankie-the-Tankie haha - I kinda knew this would be a popular game/video, so I wanted to bring my A game...!

I welcome you to tell me a bit more about what it takes to call a game a "masterpiece," in your mind. I'm not trolling ya, but I'm thinking about doing a follow-up video on my own channel about this (as I sorta suggested towards the end of this review!) Cheers.

@@TabletopToolbox No problem. Disclaimer: I took part in testing to a minor degree, and offered some rules edits. First off, a game's claim to greatness needs context, and that's what I was trying to convey. Too often it's apples and oranges. Some exceptional games are just overall masterpieces. Most are within a genre. In Voidfall's case, I think it's a masterpiece because it is an incredibly tight, polished design that delivers an incredible experience. I totally agree with you, that it's not the kind of narrative experience games with more random elements can create. What it does do is present a game with a wide range of strategic choice, has great asymmetry, amazing production values, and excellent reference material which often lacking in complex games (compendium etc). True, setup can be daunting but I come from a hex and counter wargame background, where many games make Voidfall look like a breeze in comparison. I could go on but I think that captures the essence for me.

Good points!

Thanks so much, Chris! - Jeff

Much appreciated - thank you. :)

Well to the first question, that's all you. :) But I've become a pro at mocking myself! Check out Forests of Pangaia, and pretty much the entire script of Dragon Keepers (where my daughter AND the Yi's joined in on the fun...) :) Thanks.

*gracious bow* - thank you kindly. - Jeff

Haha I do loves me some Voltron. I need to break out my G1 Lion set now that I repaired the green one... Thanks!!!

Thank you very much!

Haha thanks Sarah! Appreciate it!

Is it the "giant" aspect of the game that makes it a "masterpiece?" Or the decisions included within setup? Genuinely curious - I'm going to tackle the "masterpiece" discussion on my own channel because I keep hearing it.

Lol thank you - editing is all me, with a little help from RU-vid University... :)

Consummate work. Consummate.

I will never not engage in shenanigans... ;) Thanks for the kind words! - Jeff

Yeah I mean, if you're looking for a HUGE solo space game, this is gonna be it.

Well, thank you, but MAN this was a lot of work. :) I've done some basic composite-video work before, but never in a way that required an angle-finder device to line up camera angles before!!! :) I have a picture I took of my game room when I did that green-screen video. It looked like a tornado had come through!!! 😅 Thanks again! - Jeff

@@TabletopToolbox lol... aaaand that's why I never got around to trying it. I'm a video producer by trade, and the only way I was ever going to do a youtube channel of any kind was if I had some sort of interesting hook. I know how much work it takes to put something like this together and I just never had the giddyup to do it. I was going to use a virtual 3D camera to fly over the board (with me in it). Would have been cool. But way more work than I was willing to do. If I was an established channel with thousands of subscribers, it would maybe be worth switch over to this style. But for several years building up a channel? With only dozens of views at most at first? lol. My spirit broke. I will celebrate through your presentation. Are you planning on doing any others? I can see several games where this sort of presentation would really sing.

​@VictorDiGiovanni boy I'd love to learn more from you! I'm a total newbie still - at least I feel like it - learning on my own using Davinci Resolve. I too wanted to do movement between the 2 shots, but I couldn't begin to imagine scaling the shots - slow movement across the board game but fast movement across the live shot... That stuff is above me... Anyways I can't say I do this often, but I do have another channel (that I'm posting from) where I do KS previews - I try to do some 3D virtual shots in those when I can. I'd love to chat with you more! - Jeff

@@TabletopToolbox Would be happy to talk about it whenever you get a chance. In general, though, I use After Effects. It's relatively "easy" to set up a simple 3D space (flat pieces, not 3D objects) and a virtual camera.

Thanks! My Top-100 will be landing on the channel in a few weeks!

Thank you! - Jeff

I dunno about a "leader," but thank you for the kind words!

Kinda depends - sometimes I just shoot from a distance in a high resolution and then pan across, digitally. I did however recently pick up a Neewer "slider" - 48" in length - that I've been having a ton of fun with, but I got it mid-filming for this review so it wasn't used heavily in this video. Cheers!

Haha thanks Charles!

Thanks so much!! - Jeff

Thank you! - Jeff

Haha here I am! Cheers!

Thank you kindly!

Hey Kris! I don't know if the retail version has smaller hexes? Or if they're single-layered instead of these 3-layer versions... But I have and showed the "Galactic Edition" of the game here. Thanks man!

Same size in retail!

@@TabletopToolbox I think he meant the ones you're walking on!

​@JohnClem56 aaaah I should've figured that out!!! I had considered trying to put a giant die in the shot to interact with but I don't get a prop budget like the studio guys do!! 😂

Haha why thank you! - Jeff

Haha that's fair, Cay!! :)

Thanks so much! - Jeff

Thank you kindly! - Jeff

Thanks for the kind words. :) I actually backed Fractal instead of Voidfall, buying Voidfall later as I mentioned here. I haven't played it yet, so now I'm concerned if you have regrets! I'll be checking it out for sure, either here or on my own channel.

@@TabletopToolbox Ha don’t let me bias you then, it has good points too. The combat system is very unique, kind of the best and worst part of the game all at once.

​@@svachalekwell, guess what I played tonight...! 🥵

@@TabletopToolbox ha, what did you think?

@@svachalek the combat was definitely different. I didn't hate it, but we did some rules wrong (I had most of my tactics upgraded but never kept them in my hand - discarding them instead). We also had a player who just didn't take the combat well and sorta soured the whole game to a level that by best gaming bud never wants to play it again... Might try out the solo today since I left it set out to do filming later. Dunno if I'll ever get in enough plays for a review.

You didn't listen to me - my comparison was in the way it FEELS to play those games. I never talked about mechanisms - I talked about the adventure. Cheers.

@@TabletopToolbox sry it was meant to be an answer to one of the comments below and Not to your Video as a whole

@@olehansen3775 ah - fair. Thanks :)

In their defense, the folks in Miami get a TON of games every week, and a huge game like this that takes multiple playthroughs to understand would take the place of reviewing probably 3-4 other games. So I get it, and I'm happy to fill in. :) Thanks for the kind words - Jeff

I'd be glad to hear more about how you classify a "masterpiece" - not trolling ya, but I'm thinking of doing a further chat on my own channel about this subject!

@@TabletopToolboxNo worries :) I am just impressed with the number and quality of options and how deep the puzzle of choices is - especially in Co-op play. Have you tried it co-op?

@@RulebooksForYou I've played it solo which uses the Crisis board and unique focus cards, similar to co-op. I wasn't as fond of the "extra costs" that those crisis cards add - those type of solo/coop "tweaks" to games are my least favorite - when they simply add extra costs to the competitive game to make it harder.

@@TabletopToolboxi guess for context, some of my other "greatest" games includes Mage Knight, Frosthaven, Feast for Odin, Through the Ages, Kingdom Rush, Arkham Horror LCG, and ISS Vanguard.

I will never defend the number of plays required to review a game, but I have played this more than any other game I've reviewed on the channel, thus far... HOURS of my life went into this review! Also, the minis do add time, but not as much as picking out the 8 factions required for each game and picking out the different cards needed for tech, fallen houses, or players. That always eats up a lot of time.

The amount of plays is only relevant in this case for set up time. If you have it organized we'll it's not half bad. But the galactic box organization is terrible.

@@stormburns ah - I understand. When Daniel and I setup for that last clip, I think we set it up in about 45 minutes, but I had recorded all the dialog by then. I'm surprised that the galactic box is that much harder to setup though... I have to wonder how the faction pieces are organized in the retail game...

@@TabletopToolbox just having a stack of cards is better than the tray system. We get the set-up time down to 20-30min.